CNN and WRAL are reporting that two people were found dead and a third person is still believed missing in a Garner food plant heavily damaged in a morning explosion.
Four people were in critical condition after the explosion at the ConAgra Foods plant in the town of Garner and 20 others were taken to area hospitals. It appears that the worst of the injured suffered severe burns.
This is an unwelcome and sadly familiar feeling for our area after the plant explosion in Apex.
I noticed in my search on the Internet for news about the explosion that law firms from out of the state of North Carolina are already posting about the explosion. I hope that these posts are part of an overall reporting of industrial accidents rather than simply an attempt to attract business. Even with law, the idea of "buying local" makes sense.
Thankfully, Raleigh and Garner have many talented lawyers experienced in industrial fires and explosions and the claims resulting from them. As anyone from North Carolina can tell you, the worst industrial accidents was the fire at Imperial Foods chicken processing plant in Hamlet in 1991.
According to official reports, twenty-five (25) people died and another forty-nine (49) were injured as the result of a fire in the Imperial chicken processing plant. Witnesses at the scene described that workers could not get out of exit that were padlocked by the plant management to prevent vandalism and theft.
There is an excellent article on the investigation and eventual prosecution of the owner of the Hamlet plant on Wikipedia found here.
I sincerely hope that the ConAgra Plant had no safety violations like the Hamlet Plant.
Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry for Hamlet says that some of the Hamlet fire victims hired an out of state lawyer who handled the Bhopal chemical disaster in India but that that lawyer did not qualify to practice in North Carolina.
I send thoughts and prayers to the families of the injured and killed.
Chris Nichols
Raleigh, NC
